Before Battosai
by ScaredHalfToDeathTwice
Summary: Well, Kenshin had to end up with Hiko some way, right? The untold story of how he came to be with his master, long before Battosai was even contemplated! Rated M for Mugen.


Hey guys! This is a collaboration between Sadistic Kunoichi-13 and me, BlackRoseOfTheGrave. So, we decided that it would be completely necessary to make a cross-over between Samurai Champloo and Rurouni Kenshin. So, enjoy. Oh, by the way, this IS NOT a gender-bender fic, but the first chapter will be misleading.

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><p>The warm sun beat upon the pressed, earthen paths in long hazy strips as the sounds of dice and catcalls echoed from the brothels. The gentle swish of hakama and kimono were followed by the wooden tak tak tak of geta clicking as they met the ground in steady strides. The day was young and the vendors busy as local villagers and passersby feasted their eyes upon their wares. Shouts of children and the yowling of displeased felines entered the air as one passed the farmer villages. An air of eagerness swept through the market as the teppanyaki grills were lit and loaded with shrimp, rice and small vegetables. The excitement in the village was palpable, and provided a light to the weary traveler. Such joy helped the gentle countryside to maintain a peaceful and welcoming aura. Ah, just in time. In the distance three figures begin to appear. Hopefully they will be able to seek their answers here, in the small, efflorescent village of-<p>

"Mugen!"

Or not.

"I can't believe you spent all our money in a brothel! AGAIN!" The only female of the trio harped at the nineteen-year-old punk in geta sandals. The young man continued walking, doing his best to ignore the girl and wondering idly just why the hell he'd ever agreed to help her in the first place. As if on cue, his stomach gave an imitation of a hungry bear. _'Oh, yeah. Come to think of it, bitch still owes me that hundred dumplings—!'_

"Honestly, I don't know why the two of you have to go to the brothel so much," she continued. "It's just a waste—we could buy food or a nice place to sleep with the money you two spend on prostitutes."

The young man in glasses sighed internally. '_Why am I being dragged into this?_' A small sudden pressure against his side jerked his attention back to the present.

Jin quickly glanced backwards to see a small girl with shoulder length scarlet hair dashing down a back alley. He felt for his pitifully small wallet and let out a short curse when he realized the sad truth that he, Jin, samurai extraordinaire, had been pick-pocketed by a child. With a sigh he dashed in the general direction the child had escaped to. _'Thank Buddha Mugen wasn't paying attention. I would never hear the end of this._' Jin turned right as he met the end of the shopping district and nearly hit a brick wall. _'Dead end._' He looked around but all he saw was a stray cat... and an odd-looking squirrel creature hanging from a Sakura tree. It appeared as though he had lost what little money he had managed to keep between Fuu's constantly empty stomach and Mugen's libido. Jin turned to leave, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a small alley hidden behind a stack of crates. He entered the alley and came face to face with the young girl who had managed to pilfer from his pocket a packet of precious ryo. The child had plastered herself against the cold bricks with the intention of sneaking away once he'd left. She looked up as his shadow eclipsed her body like the veil of a reaper. He started as he saw two bright lavender eyes begin to tear up in fear. She looked so innocent in that moment. Her kimono, plum colored with cherry blossom petals, was a size too large, and her geta too small on her feet. She couldn't be older than four. For a moment, Jin pitied the child. She shifted a bit and he heard the telltale jingle of money bouncing.

The moment passed.

Jin quickly reached down and snatched the money from her tiny hand. He had to meet back up with Mugen and Fuu.

"Child, if you wish to pickpocket a samurai, be sure you can go unnoticed. Your technique is pathetic and you lack discipline. Eventually, you will steal from a man who will not show you such kindness." The girl looked up as she heard the samurai's footsteps leave the alley.

As Jin walked calmly back to his bothersome companions, he heard the click-clack of geta following him; turning, he saw the same young girl trailing behind him. "Why don't you go home; your family will worry about you." Those strangely colored eyes blinked up at him in lieu of a response. The bespectacled samurai turned and continued walking. Exiting the alleyway, the footsteps started again. He sighed internally. '_If I just ignore her, she'll get bored and go away…_'

Hey, there you are," Fuu said, spotting him. "Where'd you go?"

"Nowhere."

Mugen leered. "Bet ya spotted somethin' ya liked. So, was she hot?"

'_Only if you're into toddlers._'

"Honestly Mugen! Not every guy on the planet is as sex-obsessed as you!" Jin continued to determinately tune them out, starting when he felt something suddenly attach itself to the leg of his hakama pants. He looked down to see those same lavender eyes staring at him from under scarlet bangs and visibly twitched.

"The fuck is that!" Jin calmly looked back to his companions in stoic amusement. Mugen continued to point at the child in abject terror, and Fuu had a blank look upon her face as she stared at the young girl. "Obviously it's a child you dolt." Mugen blinked and lowered his finger.

"I know that! I meant, why is it attached to your hakama like a barnacle? Is it lost or something? Damn rat-I mean, kids these days." Mugen stepped forward and bent halfway to look the girl in the eye. "Hey, brat, go home. We don't want you around. Scram!" Mugen only had a moment to smirk before he was shoved to the ground by a fuming Fuu.

"Don't be an ass! Look at her, she's scared." The child had immediately scampered farther back behind Jin's samurai ensemble and was currently chewing her lip in fright. Fuu knelt on the ground in front of Jin and held her hand out. "It's okay hun, I won't hurt you. Just ignore the idiotic monkey behind me." The child at first simply watched Fuu, then cautiously reached forward and placed her small hand in hers. The older girl gave a brilliant smile. "There, you see? It's okay." Now this, Fuu thought, was progress.

Though, the child still had yet to let go of Jin's hakama.

"Where'd this kid _come_ from, anyway?" Mugen groused.

"If I knew that, do you really think we would be having this problem?" The eldest of the group gently shook his leg in a failed attempt to get the child off of him.

"She's probably lost, you guys," Fuu piped in, still holding the girl's hand gently.

Mugen gave Jin a sly look. "Or maybe she thinks four-eyes here's her father."

Jin raised an eyebrow and shot back, "That would make you an uncle, hm?" Mugen sputtered and glared at his frienemy. Fuu giggled as she took in Mugen's rapidly reddening face. The small girl on the ground tilted her head in a decidedly puppy-esque fashion.

"You fucking ass-hole! I'm no-one's fuc-OUCH! Will you stop hitting me you bit-OUCH! Cut it out!" Fuu had discontinued her giggling in favor of smacking the cursing out of Mugen.

"Don't use that kind of language around the kid...Oh my gosh!" Jin and Mugen looked at Fuu with questions written on their faces. "We don't know her name! How are we supposed to take care of her if we don't know what to call her?" Jin and Mugen looked at each other with horrified expressions on their faces. They burst out in varying forms of indignation at the same time.

"What the hell do you mean we're taking care of the kid?"

"It would not be wise to bring a child with us on the journey."

"Fuck no, it wouldn't be wise!"

"Perhaps we should reconsider allowing Fuu to live?"

"I agree! She has way too many half-assed plans."

"What's worse, they usually involve..."

"US!"

Fuu glared in indignation. "Enough! You two are worse than children! We are bringing her with us. She'll get killed here. Besides, people are more willing to give a child money than a samurai and a complaining TEME. Now, what's your name hun?" Fuu was back on the ground with the child (who had taken to clutching Jin's hakama like a life-line.)

The small girl looked up at Fuu with big, confused eyes. "Wah?"

"Great, the brat doesn't speak Japanese!"

"I can't say as I'm entirely surprised," Jin stated calmly. "With those features, it's likely that one or both of her parents are foreigners."

Fuu jerked to look at him, still crouched at his feet. "You don't think they got deported and left her here, do you?"

"It's possible." He adjusted his glasses. "They could have hidden her away and been captured for deportation. Or perhaps they were killed by some zealot, and the child ran away."

"Ooh!" Fuu gave the two of them a look that was half pathetic, half determined. "We can't just leave her here alone, you guys! We have to bring her with us!"

"Hang on, girly! We don't even know if the brat's on it's own or not! And I ain't taking care of _that_—" Mugen pointed an accusing finger at the child—"if I don't have to!"

"Much as I hate to say it, Mugen is right. We should not jump to conclusions; if you insist upon being responsible, I'd suggest we look for the child's parents before we decide on a course of action."

"See, I'm always right! Suck it Fuu." Mugen's face radiated egotistical glee. Jin was quick to remove the expression from his face in the best way he knew how.

"You do understand that if you are wrong and we must take the child with us, that you will be in charge of baby-sitting whilst Fuu and I go to make money for boat-fares and food?"

"Shit!"

"We'll split up. Fuu, you take the child and walk around the village. Mugen, you go search the shopping district (which is conveniently located on the opposite side of the town as the brothel). See if you can find out her name or who her parents are. I will go to the farmer's village and ask around. We will meet back here in about an hour." Mugen sighed and dragged himself to the shopping district with a mumble escaping his lips that sounded suspiciously like an insult or two. Fuu smiled and managed to convince the child to go for a walk with her. Jin, himself, wandered in the direction of the yowling felines and screaming children with a twitch in his brow.

"So, anything?" Fuu asked, the child having gotten quite bored and taken to watching anything and everything with curious eyes.

"Shopping district was a damn waste of time," Mugen complained. '_Except that stand with the squid… Like I'm telling them about that._'

"The fieldworkers also knew little of her; just that she's been running around like a stray cat, popping up every now and then."

"Yeah," Fuu sighed. "We walked all over the place, and nobody we talked to seemed to recognize her—the ones that did thought I was her older sister or something. Kept saying things like, 'You should keep a closer eye on your little sister, she runs off a lot on you,' or, 'It's about time you learned to keep track of her.'" Fuu's imitations and the faces that went with them were not very flattering.

"So now what?" Mugen was looking at the girl as if she were a piece of garbage stuck to his geta.

"I guess… We keep her."

"Oh, like _hell_, Fuu!"

"Well, we can't let her stay here on her own! She could get hurt or worse, she could be kidnapped!"

"I don't care! She's not our responsibility!

"She's just a kid! Come on, we just need to make sure she's safe. I can't let a kid go off on their own without a mother or a father." Fuu glanced down at the ground to hide her watering eyes from the boys. She wouldn't let this child suffer a fate worse than her own.

"How about a compromise then? Why don't we keep her with us until we find her a suitable home where we know she will be kept in good care?" Jin, the constant voice of reason, stood next to Fuu with his hand on her shoulder. He knew how sensitive she was about family, though, he wasn't about to hug her and allow her to cry all over his haori. It was his favorite one.

Fuu looked up with a grateful smile and nodded her head in acquiescence. Mugen sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine then, but as soon as we find a cute little house on the corner, we leave her there. Deal?"

Fuu smirked slyly and shook Mugen's outstretched hand. "Deal. Understand that by the time we find a home for her, you will miss her adorable presence."

"Not fucking likely. OUCH! Stop hitting me!"

"Stop swearing in front of the kid then!"

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><p>Reviews are the candy that children are fed to get them on a sugar high and get Mugen even more irritated than he already is! : D<p>

Hint: Mugen gets a rather interesting surprise in the next chapter!


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